Newest inductees to NCS M&S Hall of Fame honored June 7

National Center for Simulation (NCS) announced this year’s Modeling and Simulation Hall of Fame ceremony at the Orange County Convention Center will take place June 7, 2016. The NCS Board of Directors selected three individuals who will be included in the 2016 induction ceremony and they are Ralph H. Baer; General Gordon R. Sullivan (Ret), and William Waite.

These three honorees will be added to the 10 founding members who were inducted March 2014, along with last year’s four inductees in May 2015, and their accomplishments will be displayed on the Hall of Fame wall in the Orange County Convention Center South Concourse.

Ralph H. Baer enjoyed a 50-year career in the area of military and commercial video game technology. As the“father of video games,” Baer developed foundational gaming technology leading to military capability advancements, and he also recognized the potential of using television for more than program viewing and developed the first interactive commercial gaming unit, the Magnavox Odyssey. Baer held more than 150 patents in a wide range of related areas, and later developed and patented several hardware prototypes, consoles and consumer games, including the electronic pattern-matching game Simon, followed by Super Simon.

U.S. Army General (Ret) Gordon R. Sullivan, current president of Association of the United States Army, is being honored for his innovative use of simulation to design, equip, and train the U.S. Army, and his recognition of the need to reset the Army for a new era post-cold war and Desert Storm. The 1990’s Louisiana Maneuvers provided the vision and leadership needed for the next century. As the architect of the America’s 21st Century Army, he turned to simulations as the power resource that led the transition from a forward deployed Cold War Army to Force Projection Army. Through the use of simulation, his policies and leadership redesigned and delivered a new Army with new training that impacted the Army’s focus from foxhole to the industrial base.

William “Bill” Waite, the founder of AEgis Technologies Group, Inc., had a professional career that spanned five decades, and is being recognized for his many contributions to the modeling and simulation community, workforce, industry, and market. He was instrumental in the invention and evolution of M&S technologies, as well as practices and standards that impacted a broad range of M&S programs and activities. The M&S community had no stronger advocate; his colleagues had no better friend, and his employees at The AEgis Technologies Group, Inc. had no better mentor. Bill Waite leaves behind a strong foundation of practices and standards that will impact future generations of the modeling and simulation industry.

The NCS Modeling and Simulation Hall of Fame was established to recognize pioneers whose passion, dedication and perseverance laid the foundation for what has continued to grow and develop over the past 50+ years. Additionally, it also helps to raise the level of the community of the nearly $5 billion modeling and simulation industry that calls Central Florida home.

The NCS M&S Hall of Fame induction ceremony is June 7 at 6:30 p.m. and will take place at the OCCC South Concourse, Southside Restaurant. For more information or to R.S.V.P, please contact Carla Hoskins at 407-384-6111, choskins@simulationinformation.com or visit the NCS website.